Wrong pin position when opening an address from Contacts

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Level 1

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Wrong pin position when opening an address from Contacts

Does anyone experiencing this issue:

When I search an address from Maps using Search bar a new pin appears in the correct position showing the correct building. But if I select exactly the same address from Contacts the pin appears in a wrong position, usually at the beginning of the street. If I tap search againg the pin jumps to the correct position. If I select the same address from a bookmark it works correctly.

Not every address shows this issue. Some of them always work fine but some never work and always show wrong position if accessed from a contact.

iPhone 4, iOS 5

Posted on Nov 5, 2011 10:24 PM

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Answer 1

zbrdola

Level 1

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May 2, 2012 3:10 AM in response to TimofeyK

I have the same problem: When I select an address from my Contact book, the red pin appears in an inaccurate position on the Map ..... most often in the same street, but the position can be very inaccurate (100 ~ 1000 meters).

But ........ At the same time the Search entry at the top of the Map is pre-filled with this address. When I select this search entry (without any change to the address) and then press the Search button, then the pin moves to the correct location on the Map.

I have also tried the reverse procedure: First, manually place the violet pin to the desired location and then add its address to the Contact book. Then select this address from Contact book. ........ But it has not helped. The red pin appears again in an inaccurate location. Only the second Search within the Map places the red pin to the precise and correct location.

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Answer 2

TimofeyK Author

Level 1

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Jun 7, 2012 5:34 AM in response to TimofeyK

I think I know the explananiton now - I am sure it's Apple's own geocoder API/service which apparently does not understand our Australian street numbers. We have a lot of buildings with numbers like "20-26"

When you tap on an address in Contacts it seems that Apple's geocoder called and it's unable to parse street numbers with a dash correctly. When you tap search in Maps it's Google's geocoder called and it recognises the address correctly.

If I enter the same address in Contacts without the second number the pin will be placed at almost correct position. Apple's geocoder places the pin somewhere at the street when Google's places the pin right in the center of the building.

Hopefully Apple will improve its geocoder because right now it is much worse than Google's

http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/userexperience/conceptual/ LocationAwarenessPG/UsingGeocoders/UsingGeocoders.html

Converting Place Names Into Coordinates

In iOS 5.0 and later, you use the

CLGeocoder

class to initiate forward-geocoding requests using either a dictionary of Address Book information or a simple string. There is no designated format for string-based requests; delimiter characters are welcome, but not required, and the geocoder server treats the string as case-insensitive. Therefore, any of the following strings would yield results:

"Apple Inc”
"1 Infinite Loop”
"1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA USA”

The more information you can provide to the forward geocoder, the better the results returned to you. The geocoder object parses the information you give it and, if it finds a match, returns some number of placemark objects. The number of returned placemark objects depends greatly on the specificity of the information provided. Thus, providing street, city, province, and country information is much more likely to return a single address than just street and city information.

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Answer 3

zbrdola

Level 1

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Jun 8, 2012 1:24 AM in response to TimofeyK

The problem is simillar in my city (Europe, Czech Republic, Prague). We also use two numbers in an address. There are several formats comonly used:

Street name XX / YYYY
Street name YYYY / XX
Street name XX (used on postcards and among people)
Village name YYYY (in small villages, where no street names are defined)
..... and maybe others

where XX is an Orientational number (the number shows a sequence within a street) and YYYY is a Cadastral register number.

Google maps always normalizes the format to "Street name YYYY / XX" (cadastral register number first). Also Mapy.CZ and OpenStreetMap uses the same format with a cadastral register number first.

I have made several examples of mentioned adress formats in a Contact book and tested the placement of the pin on the map. But I have not found a correct order ..... which number should be the first and whether to use only one of these numbers or both. The pin has been placed inacurately in all cases (sometimes in different places with different level of inacuracy). Only the refresh of search within Google maps placed the pin to the correct position.

I have also found a different thread with the same problem: "iPhone 4S Maps Glitch?"

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Answer 4

TimofeyK Author

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Jun 8, 2012 11:25 PM in response to zbrdola

Yes, exactly the same problem. I tried a random address in Prague with a street number "10-14" and the pin dropped in the middle of the street as if there is no building number in the address. Then I changed the number to "10" and the pin was placed correctly.

Obviously Apple's own geocoder only recognises single part building numbers so if you enter something like "xx-yy" it ignores street number completely and places pin on the street.

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Answer 5

Recycleur

Level 4

1,669 points

Mar 14, 2015 3:34 PM in response to TimofeyK

I tried using Maps in Yosemite to draw an itinerary from my Contact to my address. You'd think the distance would be 0. No it isn't. The problem is that when using a Contact, it puts the marker in the middle of the land defined by the address, while when using a direct address it puts the marker on the street in front of the land.

In my case it results in an odd situation, because the middle of my land is closer to the perpendicular adjacent street than it is of the street I live on. Since the two streets are not connected, it gives me a 900-meter itinerary around the block. And If I draw an itinerary from any address to my Contact, the destination is therefore on the wrong street, and people looking for my house can only be confused.

The basic idea might be good, to get the most precise location for a Contact's house (usually near the middle of the land), but in practice it doesn't always work. I think Apple should use only one database for the two kinds of information, not a street database for direct addresses and a cadaster database for contacts.

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